Texas State Rep. Cecil Bell, Jr., center, gets some helpful hands from fellow legislators as he prepares to cut a 10-year anniversary wedding cake to celebrate the state's same-sex marriage ban during Faith and Family Day on Tuesday, Feb. 24, 2015, at the Texas Capitol. (Ralph Barrera/Austin American-Statesman/TNS) less

Texas State Rep. Cecil Bell, Jr., center, gets some helpful hands from fellow legislators as he prepares to cut a 10-year anniversary wedding cake to celebrate the state's same-sex marriage ban during Faith and ... more

Photo: Ralph Barrera, MBR

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In this Friday, Jan. 30, 2015 photo, Sen. Donna Campbell, R-New Braunfels, takes part in a school choice rally at the Texas Capitol, in Austin, Texas. Campbell is also an emergency room doctor. (AP Photo/Eric Gay) less

In this Friday, Jan. 30, 2015 photo, Sen. Donna Campbell, R-New Braunfels, takes part in a school choice rally at the Texas Capitol, in Austin, Texas. Campbell is also an emergency room doctor. (AP Photo/Eric ... more

Photo: Eric Gay, STF

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Bill Hammond, president and CEO of the Texas Association of Business.

Bill Hammond, president and CEO of the Texas Association of Business.

Photo: Handout

Houston and Texas risk following in Indiana's footsteps

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After pleas by business leaders, governors in Indiana and Arkansas have signed rewritten religious freedom laws that they say will prohibit public discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people.

Lawmakers in those states took action after protests and threats of boycotts made clear that bigotry of any kind is ugly, bad for business and will not be tolerated.

Houston's business community may look at Indiana's public relations disaster and think "there but for the grace of God go I." However, let's not forget that when British theologian John Bradford coined that phrase, he was watching criminals on their way to the executioner at Newgate Prison, not knowing that he would be burned at the stake there a few years later in 1555.

Efforts are still underway in Houston to deny the LGBT community equal rights, and lawmakers in Austin are pushing clearly discriminatory bills that could make the Indiana firestorm look like a campfire. And it won't be the bigots who suffer the consequences.

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Business

Texas businesses will experience the boycotts, guilt by association and even greater difficulty recruiting the best candidates.

Bill Hammond, president and CEO of the Texas Association of Business, said Texas politicians should learn from Indiana's experience that major sports associations like the NFL, NCAA and NASCAR, as well major corporations such as Apple, Nike and Wal-Mart, will steer clear if there's even a whiff of bigotry.

"We have the Final Four and the Super Bowl scheduled here, and I don't think there is any question that if Gov. Jan Brewer hadn't vetoed a similar bill in Arizona, the Super Bowl would not have been held in Scottsdale," he told me in an interview.

Texas passed a Religious Freedom Restoration Act in 1999, but that's apparently not enough for the conservative Christian crowd. According to the pro-LGBT group Equality Texas, lawmakers have filed 20 bills and resolutions this year that would deny them basic rights.

The legislation that business people should most fear is state Sen. Donna Campbell's SJR 10, which would amend the Texas Constitution to make it easier for individuals to sue claiming religious infringement. It would also lift the current $10,000 limit on damages when a government agency is found to have infringed on religious rights, removes the requirement that everyone respect civil rights laws, and opens the door for people to discriminate against anyone they wish because of a "sincerely held religious belief."

"This is way beyond lesbians and gays and gay marriage," Hammond said.

State Rep. Jason Villalba, R-Dallas, offered a companion to Campbell's legislation in the Texas House but pulled it after business people protested.

"I cannot and I will not support legislation, however well-intentioned, that would result in harming the job creators," he said in a statement. But Fort Worth Republican Matt Krause refiled Villalba's bill.

'Internal backlashes'

Rep. Cecil Bell, a Republican who represents the Houston suburb of Magnolia, has introduced a bill that would give business owners the right to refuse service to LGBT individuals and has an additional three bills that would block gay marriage, even if the U.S. Supreme Court declares such laws unconstitutional.

These bills make me wonder how important the right to discriminate is to the good people of Magnolia. People from the rest of the U.S. will wonder the same thing about Texans if any of these bills pass.

"Companies that operate and seek to operate in Texas will face internal backlashes if Texas becomes a place where their employees don't want to work," said Chuck Smith, director of the LGBT rights group Equality Texas. "Texas lawmakers can look to Indiana as an example."

Fort Bend Republican Rep. Rick Miller takes opposition to LGBT rights to another level by banning cities like Houston from recognizing them. He says the bill is about "economic liberty." His openly gay son Beau Miller, a Houston attorney and activist, calls his dad's proposal a disappointment.

A city of hate?

And that brings us to Houston's Equal Rights Ordinance. The City Council approved the measure that prohibits discrimination against LGBT people by businesses that serve the public, private employers, in housing and in city employment and city contracting.

A state district judge soon will decide if a measure to repeal the ordinance will be on the ballot in November. Imagine the headlines if voters repealed LGBT rights? Houston would be labeled the city of hate.

The fate of the Equal Rights Ordinance is in the judge's hands, but lawmakers will decide what happens to the bills in the Legislature.

"People may argue that the Texas amendment is different from the one in Indiana, but at this point it doesn't matter," Hammond said. "It would be treated as if it is the same thing, and it would have a negative impact on Texas."

Most of all, though, discrimination is simply wrong, no matter the economic impact.

A history of bias

I wrote a book about the history of bigotry in Texas called "Tomlinson Hill," where I take an unsentimental look at how my ancestors used religious, economic and state rights arguments to justify slavery, the Jim Crow era and opposition to the the civil rights movement.

Texas has a history of discrimination promoted by preachers waving Bibles, whether it was based on skin color, religion or national origin. Those arguments didn't stand up to scrutiny 150 years ago, and they certainly don't stand up now.